Setting a plate at the Spanish table

March 01, 2006|By Robin Mather Jenkins, Tribune staff reporter

Americans familiar with the flavors of the Mediterranean are in the perfect place to fall in love with the pleasures of the Spanish table, said Anya von Bremzen, who confesses to such a romance of her own.

She is the author of "The New Spanish Table" (Workman, $31.95), released in November and already in its second printing. Von Bremzen visited Chicago recently to promote the book and between morning television appearances and a much-anticipated lunch at Hot Doug's, von Bremzen discussed why Spanish food has so much appeal for Americans.

"Spain has leaped forward very fast" since the repressive years under the late dictator Francisco Franco, von Bremzen said. "Eating well became part of the new freedom" after Franco, she said, because both new money and new energy streamed into Spain after Franco's death.

Then, in the late '70s, a group of Basque chefs, including Juan Mari Arzak and Pedro Subijana, began a food movement called nueva cocina vasca, or "new Basque cuisine." The movement began in the province of Guipuzcua.

Finally, along came Ferran Adria, the self-taught Catalan hailed by many as "the best chef on the planet." Adria's often whimsical, always surprising, innovations--"smoke foam," a mousse made from water smoked over burning wood, for example--inspired chefs all over the world to introduce physics and organic chemistry to their kitchens.

The three influences together have created a lively new food style featuring the best of tradition and innovation, according to von Bremzen, who writes often for food magazines and is the author of the award-winning "Please to the Table," an exploration of the food of her native Russia.

Although "Spain hasn't been well represented by immigrants" who open restaurants in the States, von Bremzen said, "Americans are familiar with the Mediterranean idiom. To have this vibrant new food culture available to them is really exciting."

Spanish cuisine, which uses few unfamiliar ingredients, feels perfectly comfortable to most Americans, she said.

The Spanish food style is "very minimalistic. It features simple, straightforward preparations and few garnishes," said von Bremzen. The food is very accessible for day-to-day cooking, she said.

Americans have now learned the need for top-quality ingredients, and have become comfortable using ingredients like coarse salt and extra-virgin olive oil, she said. So when they see a recipe for fish poached in olive oil, it seems approachable. And when they see a recipe for chocolate mousse with olive oil and flaked sea salt, the recipe is not only approachable but intriguing, von Bremzen said.

"It's very simple, but very striking, food," she said.

"Spain is a unique place where traditional and experimental food go hand-in-hand," she said. "At the same time, traditional food is informing the avant-garde. But even home cooks have the ethos of simplicity. No one makes fussy food."

That would include von Bremzen herself. "I don't make all-Spanish dinners," she said. "I see this more as a stylish way to add some nifty touches to a menu."

But she returns again and again to certain dishes, she said, including a coca, or pizza, with candied red peppers; a dish of clams with pine nuts and cured ham; and lamb roasted for seven hours. "I make that, like, once a week," she admitted.

Coca with candied red peppers

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Cooking time: 38 minutes

Yield: 12 servings

This coca--a Spanish-Mediterranean pizza--is "baked with a Mallorcan topping of sweetened red peppers that are dusted with confectioners' sugar," writes Anya von Bremzen in "The New Spanish Table." "Because I'd sooner hang out sipping wine than slave in the kitchen, I've adapted this recipe to use store-bought pizza dough and roasted peppers from a jar--with excellent results."

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat; add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until limp but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the roasted peppers; cook, stirring, about 5 minutes. Add the granulated sugar, water and vinegar; cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Cover the skillet; reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; season with salt. Set mixture aside to cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, heat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly brush a cookie sheet with olive oil. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly as large as the baking sheet; transfer dough to the baking sheet. Brush with olive oil; spread the filling evenly on top.